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Several changes to the Internet landscape over the past year have brought new challenges for brand owners, as Mark Calandra explains.

There was tremendous upheaval in the intellectual property realm in the past year. Consider: in less than 12 months the adults-only .xxx domain extension went live, ICANN announced its new generic top-level domain (new gTLD) applicant list, the number of social media users grew well into the hundreds of millions, and sales of mobile devices increased by nearly 50 percent.

Each season brings its own innovations, all with the potential to enhance or chip away at the value of brands. As this evolution continues, trademark holders have some big decisions to make: how best to protect their brands and enforce trademark rights; where to spend their brand-protection budgets (and maximise return on investment); how to plan for the greatest risks; and how to exploit new opportunities as they arrive.

To thrive in this new environment, brand owners need to shake off their long-held assumptions, take stock of their current strategies, and address whatever shortcomings they find. Look for opportunities to strengthen, streamline, and consolidate your trademarkprotection operations, and not only will the value and security of your brands improve, your IP spending will go even further.